As Texas teachers return to their public classrooms or open-enrollment charter schools, a new state law will restrict the way they can discuss current events, encourage civic engagement, and teach about America’s history of racism.
Texas educators who spoke with The Texas Tribune overwhelmingly denounced the new law, born out of House Bill 3979, known as the Critical Theory of Race (CRT) bill passed during the regular legislative session of this year.
According to educators, its pervasive language, which includes a ban on teaching that a student should feel guilty about their race, will mean that classroom conversations about racism could inadvertently elicit parental ire and lead to teachers being punished.
They say it will be more difficult to creatively meet the curriculum standards the state has given them and teach students to think critically.
And they are concerned that the legislation as a whole will cool discussions and lessons on social studies and current events in a way that gives a generation of Texas students an incomplete and white-centered view of history and the world around them.
The Tribune interviewed more than two dozen teachers across the state to learn how the provisions of the legislation will affect them and Texas students.
When Gov. Greg Abbott signed HB 3979, Texas joined a broader national backlash against teaching on racism and sexism. The law was passed by a Texas Legislature that is much whiter than students in the state’s public schools.
Republican officials say it is meant to ban Critical Theory of Race in K-12 classrooms, although the term never appears in the bill. Academic experts say Republican leaders have repeatedly misrepresented the principles of the academic framework, which is used to examine the structural causes of racial inequality. Also, experts and teachers say that theory is not taught in K-12 schools.
State Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, author of the bill, said that much of the new law, especially provisions intended to prevent Critical Theory of Race from being taught, stem from concerns he heard from parents who feel that their children are being “indoctrinated.”
“We’ve heard, ‘You should feel guilty about what [la gente blanca] has done, ‘”he said. “We have heard: ‘You are privileged people and you should feel guilty about that privilege.’
The new law includes key provisions from model legislation that appear in other state bills that target what Republicans call a Critical Theory of Race. Toth said that in crafting the legislation, he consulted with the author of the template, Stanley Kurtz, a conservative commentator and senior fellow at the Center for Ethics and Public Policy, and collaborated with Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who helped fuel the current controversy over the CRT.
Texas teachers and experts say the term is being used politically as a catch-all phrase for any teaching that challenges or complicates dominant narratives about the role of race in the country’s history and identity, which historically focus on perspectives. of white people.
“They have thrown social studies teachers into the forefront of a culture war,” said Kerry Green, an American history teacher, at Sunnyvale High School in East Dallas.
The new law goes into effect on September 1.
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